


Shinigami

by KibaSin



Series: Past Time [64]
Category: Bleach, InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: F/M, Minor Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-06
Updated: 2014-01-06
Packaged: 2018-01-07 15:55:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1121751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KibaSin/pseuds/KibaSin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He never thought having a regular girlfriend would screw up his life that much, but he supposed that having one that wasn't so regular was ok, too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shinigami

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any material belonging to the creators of _Inuyasha_ or _Bleach._

* * *

"I'm telling you, Ichigo, there's something seriously different about that girlfriend of yours!" Renji tried to explain once more.

Ichigo huffed, his scowl deepening a bit more, as he said, "Renji, will you give it up already. There's nothing strange about Kagome. She was sick a lot throughout middle school, but that's it. You got that?"

Renji stood by his belief, replying, "Ichigo, you have to listen to me. Even Orihime can see it! And I mean, come on, your first clue should have been when Uryuu told you her spirit threads are blue! From my research there's only one creature on the entire planet that has ever had blue spirit threads, but they've been dead for hundreds of years!"

"You know," Ichigo grumbled, "it's taken me quite some time to actually see those spirit threads, but I don't really care. So what if all you guys think the only colored spirit threads are red and white. If you haven't noticed, Souta's spirit threads are blue, too, and he's Kagome's little brother. It's probably just something that's passed down in their family and no one ever had time to notice it."

" _Ichigo_!" Renji grumbled. His eyes stared into the substitute shinigami's, and they began to glare at one another. "How many times must we tell you? Spirit threads are like your spiritual identity. Kagome's are unique, and so are Souta's. I'm telling you, there's no one else in the entire world who has blue spirit threads. You can look if you don't believe me!"

"Look, Renji, I don't really care, ok," Ichigo growled lightly. "Big deal if Kagome has blue spirit threads, and is most likely some type of creature that hasn't been seen for hundreds of years. I doubt she even knows about it, or ever will, unless you decide to go blabbin' your mouth about something that ain't important."

"Ain't important! Ain't important!" Renji gasped. He flung his arms into the air, though he was still felt a bit odd in his gigai. "This is very important. The only thing that has ever had blue spirit threads were humans that could turn shinigami, hollows, and a number of other creatures to  _dust_  with a single touch of a finger! They were normally female, called a miko, and they protected villages a long time ago before they were wiped out of the world. But that girlfriend of yours—"

"Look, Kagome isn't—"

"Kagome isn't what?"

Ichigo and Renji tensed, before they turned to find the girl they had been talking about standing behind them. She was wearing the school uniform, with her books held against her chest. Her pretty blue eyes were wide, intelligent, and stared at them with a curious light, while she used her unoccupied arm to twirl a strand of hair on a finger. She was in good health, another reason that Renji thought something was fishy about her, and looked like she took her family shrine steps at least four times a day.

"Ah," Ichigo glared at Renji for putting him into this position. "Renji wanted to know if you were wearing contacts—" he saw the shinigami give him a confused look, obviously not understanding the word, "and I was going to tell him that you aren't. He just thinks it's strange that you have such an unnatural eye color. Not that that's a bad thing, of course."

Renji nodded quickly, saying, "Yeah, that's it." He would have to ask Ichigo later what in the heck contacts were. He heard a few humans talking about it already, and he was surprised that Ichigo had used such a strange word. Perhaps it would be as fascinating as the juice pack, which he still was not quite sure how to master.

"Oh," Kagome blinked. Something seemed a bit odd to her about the situation, but she decided to let it go for now. "Well, I can assure you, Renji-san, that my eyes are my natural color. I got them from my father."

"Riiight," Renji nodded in acceptance. Sometimes he wished that humans were not so complicated, because he really wanted to know what the hell had just happened. And his gigai was really tight sometimes, which ticked him off, especially when he was near Ichigo's precious girlfriend. Plus, she was always giving him that weird look, like she knew something else about him, but had sealed her lips as to what it was. Mostly all of these things made him long for the Soul Society, but he wanted to make Ichigo understand that if his girlfriend knew what she was, and she found out what he was, she might turn on him!

"See, I told ya," Ichigo nudged him. "You really need to put some more trust in me, Renji."

"Hey, I'll put more trust in you when—" Renji stopped, his argument dying on his tongue as he turned to look out the window at his left. Kagome was looking at him strangely again, but he ignored the shiver that raced through his gigai, and searched the area. "Ichigo."

Yeah, he had felt it. He gave Renji the look that he understood. He had felt the Hollow's energy, and he knew it was just waiting out there for some yummy soul to pass by it. So, he reached up to scratch the back of his head, and said, "Hey, I gotta go to the bathroom. You mind stickin' with Renji for a bit, Kagome?"

Kagome shook her head, saying, "Not at all."

Great, just what Renji wanted! To be stuck with the woman that could turn out to be a long lost creature in disguise, trying to act all normal like. Of course, Renji was not quite sure what normal human behavior was, considering the fact that all of Ichigo's friends seemed to have an array of behaviors, but that was not the point. However, if Kagome turned out to be a miko that wanted only to purify his soul from this world, he would make sure that Ichigo knew what had happened to him. Then maybe that stupid kid would understand that his girlfriend was not as normal as he seemed to think she was.

"Renji-san?"

Renji blinked, before looking down his nose at the girl so much shorter than him. She was even a bit shorter than Rukia, so he basically towered over her. Hell, Ichigo  _really_  towered over her. "Uh, yeah?" he asked.

"Do you want to walk me outside?" Kagome asked. She had noticed the strange energy coming from outside, and she wondered again if Renji had been able to feel it. She had realized almost the moment after she had met him that he was not normal, and she was really happy about that, since life in this time was just so boring. Ichigo was great, he was, but she needed just a little something in her life that escaped normality if she ever wanted to remain sane.

Though, then again, she always did think she felt something  _off_  with Ichigo, too. Almost like there was something entirely different about him, which she guessed was what drew her to him in the first place. Orihime had been the first one to befriend her, but slowly she had managed to wriggle into the hearts of the entire group, and got close to that strange  _off_ -ness that she felt from Ichigo. No, not just Ichigo. All of them, though they tried so hard to make sure that she did not see it—she guessed that she often forgot that none of them felt like regular humans.

"What about Ichigo?" Renji asked. It was not such a good idea to go outside at the moment, since he could already hear the roars of the Hollow Ichigo had no doubt went into battle with. "Shouldn't we wait for him? I'm sure he'll be back any minute now."

"I'm sure he won't mind," Kagome laughed. "Besides, Ichigo's pretty fast when he wants to be. I'm sure that he can catch up easily enough."

Renji gazed into those big, pleading blue eyes, and found himself saying, "Well, I don't see why no—"

"Great!" Kagome's smile widened. "Come on then," she said, grabbing his sleeve. She pulled him forward, moving through the hallways with ease, even as she waved and smiled at people that she knew. She realized after a few times that Renji was giving them awkward bows of the head, unable to really keep his balance the harder that she pulled.

She was positive that there was something about Renji that could get rid of that energy, since she had noticed him sneak off once and a similar energy vanished. She was not quite sure what the energy was still; since they always seemed to disappear right before they reached the shrine each time she felt them. She had been positive they were after the jewel, despite the fact it had turned to dust and fused with her after she had made her wish, making sure that the selfishness of the wish would not affect the rest of the world. Midoriko was a real genius, but Kagome doubted that she could have expected such a strange, dark energy to still be around in a time demons had dwindled to near nothingness.

Besides, if Renji wanted to play around with her still, try to make her believe he was not something else, she supposed she could purify the dark energy. Maybe showing a bit of her power would get Renji to loosen his tongue. She knew that miko energy had dwindled in the world with the lack of demons, but there had to be someone in the world that knew what they were. And if Renji did not, she could play with him a bit, threatening to do the same thing she had done to the energy to him. Sure, he did not feel evil, but perhaps a small, glowing girl could make him understand that when she wanted to know something, she was willing to go to such lengths to find the answer.

Renji's eyes widened as they neared the exit. He could hear the faint cry of the Hollow beyond those doors, along with Ichigo's battle cry, and he had no doubt that the battle between them still raged. Though why in the heck it was taking so long for Ichigo to take care of the Hollow was beyond him. "H-Hey!" he tried to catch her attention, while she continued to pull him behind her. For such a small girl she was pretty strong. "I think this is far enough! We really should wait for Ichigo to come back."

Kagome rolled her eyes, listening to the sounds of the beast roar outside. A lot of people could be hurt, yet he was worried about Ichigo coming. Sure, her boyfriend did not feel like a normal human, but she did not think that he would be able to do much against this type of energy. In fact, she was not even sure if Renji was going to be much help. "Renji-san," she pouted, "you promised to walk me  _outside_. I'm not going to let you out of it now, and I'm sure that Ichigo would be unhappy with your lack of honor."

Renji bristled, "Don't bring Ichigo into this!"

"Why not?" Kagome asked, continuing to tug at him until they had reached the door. Then, she gave him a small glare from the corner of her eye, and said, "You're related, aren't you?" Yeah, she already knew  _that_  one was a lie, but she was not about to tell him that she had scanned both their auras and found nothing to state they were even distantly related. People might try, especially every one in on the  _joke_ , but she was not going to have that one pulled over her head.

"Of course!" Renji lied. He did not know why Ichigo had decided to come up with that one, since he hated the fact that everyone continued to say they could  _see_  the similarities. There was  _nothing_  similar between him and Ichigo! "That's not the point, though. Ichigo made me promise that I would—"

"You would what?" Kagome asked when he paused in speech. "Keep me from going outside. Sorry, Renji, but that's not going to happen!"

Renji grabbed for her as she let go of his hand, and sped through the door.  _Shit_ , raced through his head, while he shoved the door open, and watched as the girl raced out until she was in the middle of the school courtyard. He ran after her, noticing that the Hollow Ichigo was fighting had turned its large white mask toward the girl, ignoring the shinigami. Ichigo looked stunned, but Renji's focus was on getting the girl out of the way as the Hollow turned and went for her.

" _The jewel!_ " the Hollow cried. " _You have it! Give it to me, tasty little human!_ "

Kagome was shocked, her eyes gazing beyond the large beast headed for her. That was Ichigo! No, there was something different about him. It was not the clothes, though she did admit they were drastically different from his school clothes, or the fact that he was carrying a very big sword, which she admitted had a strange aura surrounding it. No, it was the fact that he felt like Renji—like the part of him that had always felt human had been stripped away.

" _Give me the jewel!_ " the Hollow hissed.

Renji just barely managed to grab ahold of the stupid girl, though she probably could not see anything, and shoved them both out of the Hollow's path. It hit the ground, embedding its head into the dirt, and left behind a large crater. He heard the girl beneath him gasp, probably from the hole that suddenly appeared, and he growled when the Hollow pulled itself from the hole it had created. "You moron!" Renji grunted, though he was positive the girl had no idea what he was talking about.

The Hollow swung its masked face around, until it locked its dark eyes on the girl. A grinned seemed to stretch across the bone that made up its face, before it dug its claws into the earth. " _Foolish little human. Don't think you'll get away so easily. The jewel will be mine! Mine!_ "

" _I don't think so!_ " Ichigo hollered, flying over the Hollow's body. It turned to hiss at him, but gave him the perfect chance to dig the tip of Zangetsu into its mask. He arched his Zanpak-to through the Hollow's mask, vanquishing it from the world. It disappeared in a sparkle of light; its final cries barely heard as its soul returned to its human state and passed on to the Soul Society. However, Ichigo's were instantly on Renji's when he hit the ground, and he nearly stomped all the way over to them.

Kagome looked up. She realized after a moment the reason that she had thought the energy was so familiar. She had felt it a long time ago, when she had met that man who introduced himself as Yamamoto. He had been surprised she could see him, and told her something about needing to return to where he had come from, but he had refused to tell her where that was or if there were more like him. But she knew the moment she gazed at Ichigo, and realized that she had felt the same energy from Renji and a lot of others she had met through Ichigo.

" _What the hell do you think you're doing?_ " Ichigo yelled. He watched as Renji shifted his eyes to Kagome, and his anger rose a bit when he realized the shinigami was not going to reply to him. " _I told you to watch her whenever I had to deal with these damn Hollows! Not drag her outside so that she can nearly get herself killed! I don't know what your problem is, Renji, but when I get back into my body, I'm going to kick your ass!_ "

Kagome flinched, softly saying, "I-Ichigo?"

Renji's eyes widened, and he scrambled away from the girl he had saved as she gazed at Ichigo. His mouth fell open, and he pointed at her, shouting, "Holy crap! She can see you, Ichigo!"

" _What the hell are you talkin' about? She can't—_ " Ichigo's voice halted at the feel of fingers wrapping around his wrist. He looked up quick, and saw that Kagome was holding onto his hand. That was not right, though, because he went through mostly everything in this form and gave humans the creeps when he did so. Yet her hand was giving off a soft blue light, and she  _was_  holding onto him.

"Ichigo," Kagome whispered, staring into his eyes. "You're a shinigami."

" _Uh_ ," Ichigo forced out. This was the last thing he expected. Sure, Ishida and Renji were always trying to tell him that there was something different about Kagome, but he had been positive that her blue spirit threads were because there was something different with her soul. Like it was really,  _really_  old or something. Or maybe she had been some weird creature the Soul Society did not know about yet that decided it wanted to reincarnate back into the mortal realm.

"You're a shinigami!" Kagome said again. Happiness coated her voice, because she had not expected to find something so out of the norm in her time. She had been positive that she had left all the strange, wonderful stuff behind in the past, yet it stood before her now in the form of her boyfriend. So, giddy, she shouted, "This is wonderful!"

" _Yeah_ ," Ichigo replied. He was not about to correct her that he was really a substitute shinigami, and he only turned into a shinigami because the shinigami that was supposed to patrol his sector disappeared a lot. Besides, he was sure that if he had told her that, he would have then gone off on all the weird shit he had been forced to deal with because of it, too.

Renji tensed when he saw the first of the tears streak down her cheeks. He raised his hands in defense, and said, "Hey, wait a minute. There's no reason to cry about it!"

"I-I'm just so happy," Kagome giggled. "I thought that everything was normal, such as the mass amounts of humans, but then I felt that energy that you called a Hollow. I had been so sure that there had to be more, but I didn't want to get hopeful until I met Ichigo and everyone. You were the only ones that felt  _different_ , un-human, but I didn't want to believe it in case I was wrong. But I'm not! You're not! Oh, I'm just so happy."

Renji narrowed his eyes, before asking, "How is it you knew we felt different?"

Kagome looked up at him through the tears. She supposed that she could tell them, so she smiled. After a moment of letting him wait, she said, "I'm a miko."

A grin spread across Renji's face, and he pointed at Ichigo, shouting, "Ha! I told ya so!"

"Shut up!" Ichigo growled back. His glare was directed beyond Renji, though, to the boy that was beginning to come toward them, along with the three girls that followed behind him.

"Higurashi-san?"

Kagome turned, blinking away her tears. She looked surprised, but smiled nervously, "Oh, hi Hojo."

Behind them, the three girls began to whisper. The first said, "I told you that Renji was crazy."

"I know, did you see the way he was talking to air?" the second replied.

The third nodded, suspicious. "Yeah, and now he's got Kagome-chan going crazy, too. We've got to find that boyfriend of hers before he manages to do any more damage."

"Hey!" Renji shouted, having heard them. They jumped and raced off screaming, while he ran after them, shouting for them to take that back.

Ichigo smirked. He could not been seen by anyone but Kagome now, but he had gotten the last laugh. Renji might have been right on the fact that Kagome was not normal, but now the whole school was going to think he was nuts. In his opinion, this looked like one of his better days.

_-Fin_


End file.
